"Knowing everything about the past can be murder."
Reviewed by Lynn Cunningham
Posted September 23, 2012
Thriller Psychological | Suspense Psychological
Sara Gallagher has a thriving home business, a great fiance,
and a daughter she adores. Everything should be falling
right into place for her but something has always kept her
from being the happy woman she should be. Sara was adopted
as a baby and she's always wondered obsessively about her
birth parents. She may not have been so focused on it except
for the fact that her adoptive father always treated her
like a second class citizen once he and his wife were able
to have two children of their own. He constantly blamed her
for things that were the fault of her sisters, punished her
when she didn't deserve it and basically made her feel that
she was a truly defective human being. Sara's adoptive
mother suffered from a chronic illness that kept her from
taking up for Sara the way she might have if she hadn't been
ill so much of the time.
Oddly enough, Sara was the only one of the three girls that
grew up and landed a man that her father approved of and
liked. Now that Sara and Evan are planning a wedding, it
becomes even more important to her to find out her ancestry
if for no other reason than to get a medical history for any
future children they may have. Everyone has warned her
against this quest but Sara has a problem with just letting
things go.
She sees Nadine, a psychiatrist, for anger and
anxiety issues that may be part of the cause of her
debilitating migraines. It's for this reason that Nadine is
plunged into the middle of Sara's search for her birth
parents and even she isn't sure that it's the thing Sara
needs to be doing. However, Sara forges ahead.
Through a series of events, Sara does locate her birth
mother, who is less than thrilled with Sara's appearance in
her life. She tells Sara to go away and never contact her
again. Sara is hurt and can't seem to leave well enough
alone. That's how she comes to hire a private investigator
who delivers some devastating news.
It seems that Sara's biological father is a wanted serial
killer called the Campsite Killer and her biological mother
was the only victim that ever escaped from him. Sara is the
product of a brutal rape. As horrible a blow as this is to
her, Sara keeps the news to herself until it breaks out on a
website. That brings her entire family into it as well as
having exposed the location of her biological mother who has
been hiding under an alias for years.
What's even worse is that her biological father starts
calling her. He wants to get to know her. Sara is terrified
and goes to the police. She's assigned two criminal
investigators that are responsible for monitoring her phones
as well as her life in case she's able to lead them to the
Campsite Killer. When he demands to meet her in person, the
cops are elated but Sara is frightened at what could happen.
Despite everyone's warnings that she should just back off,
Sara can't help feeling guilty that her non-compliance with
the killer's demands could mean that he'll kill again. But
when she agrees to do what he asks, she has no way of
knowing that she's starting down a path of danger that she
may not return from.
There's so much to say about NEVER KNOWING that it's hard to
know where to start. Chevy Stevens is a three dimensional
writer in that her readers really get wrapped up in her
characters as if they're sitting right in front of them.
They evoke emotions from the readers. In my case, Sara was
rather annoying because she IS so obsessive about everything
but it's kind of understandable. Her fiance should be
nominated for sainthood. Her child, however, is one of the
most annoying and irritating child characters I've ever
encountered in a book. Excuses kept being offered for her
bad behavior and sometimes it got a bit much for me. On the
other hand, the plot of this book made me hate it when I had
to stop reading it for any reason. NEVER KNOWING is a book
that will
stay with you long after the final page. Don't miss it!
SUMMARY
From the acclaimed author of Still Missing comes a
psychological thriller about one woman’s search into her
past and the deadly truth she uncovers. All her
life, Sara Gallagher has wondered about her birth parents.
As an adopted child with two sisters who were born naturally
to her parents, Sara did not have an ideal home life. The
question of why she was given up for adoption has always
haunted her. Finally, she is ready to take steps and to find
closure. But some questions are better left
unanswered. After months of research, Sara
locates her birth mother---only to be met with horror and
rejection. Then she discovers the devastating truth: Her
mother was the only victim ever to escape a killer who has
been hunting women every summer for decades. But Sara soon
realizes the only thing worse than finding out about her
father is him finding out about her. What if
murder is in your blood? Never Knowing is
a complex and compelling portrayal of one woman’s quest to
understand herself, her origins, and her family. That is, if
she can survive. . . .
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